I bought a couple pair of their anti-clastic forming pliers earlierthis year and was fairly pleased with them. You may find you need tomodify them a bit to suit your particular needs, I know I did, butthey're pretty basic tools so it's not too difficult.

FWIW, I found their service to be quite good. They tend towardsextreme brevity when it comes to writing emails though.

I bought a couple pair of their anti-clastic forming pliers
earlier this year and was fairly pleased with them. You may find
you need to modify them a bit to suit your particular needs, I know
I did, but they're pretty basic tools so it's not too difficult.

What modifications did you need to make?

I bought a pair of their largest anti-clastic forming pliers lastyear and donated another pair to last year's Orchid dinner silentauction in Tucson.

I do use them for a line of etched silver bracelets I'm selling, butI have been disappointed with them in one regard: despite what itsays on Miland's Web site, the pliers DO leave marks on the silver. Inoticed that the rounded side of the pliers was not mirror-finished,and was in fact, quite rough and pitted. I sent e-mail to Milandinquiring about that and was told that there was a solution whichthey would send me in the mail. What I received was some foam diskswith adhesive on one side. What I expected was to have my pittedpliers replaced with pliers with the expected mirror finish. So I usethem, and am grateful for them, but I have to say that I amdisappointed with the marks that it leaves.

Also, Otto Frei carries a line of anti-clastic forming pliers. Ibought a small one - no pits - but I haven't used in production yet.

You now know how to get the anticlastic pliers from Miland Suess. Ifyou go to Tucson, be sure to find his booth at Electric Park (atleast that was the location last year) and meet him. He has alsocome to the Orchid dinner and donated some wonderful tools to thesilent auction. The tools have been hotly contested in bidding wars.Miland is one cool dude. I think he enjoys the process of developinga tool more than anything. Way to go Miland!

What modifications did you need to make?... So I use them, and am
grateful for them, but I have to say that I am disappointed with
the marks that it leaves.

The ones I ordered didn't have the pitted finish problem that yoursdid, thankfully. I would think a little clean-up and re-polishingwould solve that, no? But I agree, it's a drag to have the problem inthe first place.

As to the pliers making little dents in the metal you are forming andthe sticky plastic pads not doing much to overcome that I'd have tosay that my experience was pretty much exactly the same. My first stepwas to cut some disks out of fairly thick leather --3mm toolingleather if I'm not mistaken-- and glue those on the ball side of thejaws with rubber cement. Voila, no marks! And the leather disks stoodup to use and abuse much better than the plastic ones did. But then Idecided I actually liked the marks after all and so don't use theleather pads much anymore.

The mods that I made to my pliers were mostly a matter ofspecializing them for my particular purposes. I found that theforming side of the pliers --that is the side that the ball jaw fitsinto-- were too large and therefore restrictive for my tastes. Ithink they're large to help you form a full circle but I didn't findthat useful because I wanted to form much tighter circles. So I cutmost of the forming side off leaving only a short segment on theplier's jaw itself. This made them much more versatile... and I'vebeen able to use the section I cut off as a forming block in and ofitself so I'm happy with the way it turned out.

I'll have to check out the forming pliers that you mentioned OttoFrei offers. If it's like the other stuff I've purchased from themthen I'll bet they're pretty good.

I do use them for a line of etched silver bracelets I'm selling,
but I have been disappointed with them in one regard: despite what
it says on Miland's Web site, the pliers DO leave marks on the
silver. I noticed that the rounded side of the pliers was not
mirror-finished, and was in fact, quite rough and pitted.

I have come to realize that many if not most tools come to us still
needing modification. I have never bought a pair of pliers that had a
mirror finish, from any manufacturer. I just finished the JT
Intensive program at Revere Academy, and we spent the entire first
day learning about and modifying tools and equipment. We sanded and
polished pliers and hammers, and lined bow-closing pliers in copper,
all to prevent marring the metal. Nobody knows why manufacturers
don't do this for us. I think that Miland does more in this regard
than anyone else - but then again their tools are handmade by people
who know jewelry. I have a pair of cutters from them that I'm very
happy with. I may very well buy anticlastic pliers from them in the
near future, and I realize that I likely will have to bring up a
mirror finish myself.